Most of the novel takes place during Reconstruction-era Texas. After the American Civil War ended, the Union army occupied Texas for some time; it was readmitted as a state in 1870, five years after the war’s end, despite not meeting the necessary qualifications. The Reconstruction was a turbulent time in Texas, particularly for former enslaved people and other people of color. On June 19, 1865, General Gordon Granger took possession of Texas through the city of Galveston for the Union and ordered that the Emancipation Proclamation be officially enforced. This day became the federal holiday Juneteenth; Galveston, an important city in the novel, is considered the origin of the holiday, and it became the center of Black celebrations and jubilees into the present day. However, since the Union armies were largely isolated on the Texas coast, many Black people were still enslaved throughout Texas for some time after the war’s end. It took many years to uproot the most violent legacies of the Confederacy in Texas, and many people were harmed and killed in the effort of many Texans to enforce white supremacy in the years after the war’s end.

The novel takes place during this time period, but it largely avoids discussing issues of race and ethnicity.